Description
A cassone was a wooden chest used for the storage of clothing, an essential piece of furniture in Italian homes during the Renaissance and often produced in matched sets. The cassone was often made on the occasion of a marriage and elaborately decorated with painted scenes and gilded moldings. This panel comes from such a painted cassone. It was not uncommon for the painted decoration to represent a memorable event at the time of the marriage. This scene depicts the end of the Palio, a horse race held in the streets of Florence on the Feast of John the Baptist (June 24). The panel from the other side of the cassone is now preserved in the Bargello Museum in Florence and shows the procession of the Palii banners before the race. The cassone commemorates a wedding between members of the Fini and Aldobrandini families in 1418.
Provenance
Marchese Bartolini-Salimbeni (1741); Pitti coll., Florence (1798); James Jackson Jarves (1884); Mrs. Liberty E. Holden
Panel from a Cassone: The Race of the Palio in the Streets of Florence
1418
Accession Number
1916.801
Medium
tempera and gold on wood
Dimensions
Framed: 46.5 x 143.5 x 7 cm (18 5/16 x 56 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 42.1 x 139.5 cm (16 9/16 x 54 15/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Holden Collection
Tags
Painting Renaissance (1400–1599) Tempera Gold Leaf Italian Color: Orange Color: Brown
Background & Context
Background Story
Giovanni Francesco Toscani (active early 15th century) was a Florentine painter known for his cassone panels—the decorated wedding chests that were a major form of domestic art in Renaissance Florence. The Race of the Palio in the Streets of Florence from 1418 depicts the famous horse race that was held in the streets of Florence in the narrative, decorative manner that distinguishes the best cassone painting of the early 15th century. The 1418 date makes this one of the earliest dated cassone panels, and the painting provides a rare visual record of the Palio race in early Renaissance Florence.
Cultural Impact
The Race of the Palio in the Streets of Florence is important in the history of Renaissance art because it is one of the earliest dated cassone panels and provides a rare visual record of the Palio race in early Renaissance Florence. Cassone panels were a major form of domestic art in Renaissance Florence—decorated wedding chests that were commissioned for aristocratic marriages—and the 1418 painting shows the narrative, decorative manner that distinguishes the best cassone painting from the more devotional manner of altarpieces.
Why It Matters
The Race of the Palio is a rare visual record of Florence in 1418: the famous horse race in the streets of Florence depicted on a cassone panel—the decorated wedding chest that was a major form of domestic art in Renaissance Florence. The 1418 panel is one of the earliest dated cassone panels, showing the narrative, decorative manner of domestic Renaissance art.
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